The German Years - Looking Back

Once upon a time in the East....

Well, my time in Germany has come to an end (for now). Therefore, I thought it would be appropriate to look back on my years in Germany. To be honest, Germany is really just like America, except for the details. People ride the subway (although the transportation authority prints up exact schedules and sticks to them), they go to work (although they get six weeks a year of vacation), they pay their bills (although most banking is done through direct electronic deposits and payments and not checks), they vote (although on Sundays instead of Tuesdays), they eat (although lunch is usually the hot meal of the day), and they love the Millionaire show (although a million Marks is only about $500,000 and the German host is no Regis Philbin). There is no German Jerry Springer, but there's an African-American guy who does a talk show on German TV with the worst American accent you've ever heard! There's a lot of smoking in public places, but no Pokemon yet! And as for being an American in Germany: luckily, the Germans just love the United States; unfortunately, the Germans also hate the United States! They're a little conflicted...

The Germans are also taking a sort of bittersweet look back at their country at this time. This month they're celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the falling of the Berlin Wall. Unfortunately, the German re-unification has not been really mega-successful. So they're a little conflicted about themselves as well. Westerners (Wessis) feel over-burdened paying for the rebuilding of the East and are worried about the right- and left-wing trends re-developing there, while Easterners (Ossis) are experiencing a sort of nostalgia for old DDR (East German) times. A recently really successful film, Sonnenallee, depicted those times as being rather harmless. We see East Berlin through the eyes of a bunch of teenagers who worry much more about getting their hands on some girls and Beatles albums, than they do about the Stasi. I suppose this de-vilification of East Germany is some sort of a stage in the maturation of the republic--a way to deal with the disappointments of both sides in re-unification.

Anyway, check out the film if you can... there's just nothing as good as Germany on Germany. This folk pretty much rules when it comes to unrelenting self-reflection. Then again, we wouldn't want it any other way!